Court punishes rape victim
If this doesn’t get your blood boiling, I don’t know what will.
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2007
16:05
MECCA
TIME,
13:05 GMT
Saudi court punishes
rape victim
A Saudi
Arabian court has doubled a corporal punishment sentence imposed on a rape
victim after she spoke out about her case.
But the
decision to give a woman who was gang raped a six months jail term and 200
lashes received only mild criticism from the
US
on Monday.
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An
official at the general court in Qatif, in
Saudi Arabia
’s eastern province, said judges
had increased the sentence because of the woman’s "attempt to aggravate and
influence the judiciary through the media".
The
woman’s name has not been released.
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The case
has drawn criticism internationally, with
Canada
saying on Monday it would complain
to the Saudi authorities about the sentence.
Canadian
reaction
Josee Verner
,
Canada
’s minister responsible for the
status of women, called the Saudi ruling "barbaric" and said it would
only further violate the 19-year-old victim.
Verner
said
Canada
would formally express its
condemnation to "the appropriate Saudi authorities".
But the
US
, which wants
Saudi Arabia
to attend its
Middle East
conference in
Annapolis
next week, did not condemn the
ruling.
Sean
McCormack, a spokesman for the
US
state department, said:
"This is a part of a judicial procedure overseas in the court of a
sovereign country," when asked to comment on the case.
"That
said, most would find this relatively astonishing that something like this
happens."
Asked
whether the Saudi authorities should reconsider the sentence against the woman,
McCormack said he could not "get involved in specific court cases in
Saudi Arabia
dealing with its own
citizens".
‘Illegal
mingling’
In
October 2006, the woman was sentenced to 90 lashes for what the court called
"illegal mingling".
According
to Human Rights Watch, the woman said she had met a male friend who had
promised to return a photograph of her.
After she
met him in his car, the pair were attacked by a gang of seven men who allegedly
raped them both several times.
The man was also sentenced to 90 lashes. Of the gang prosecuted in the case,
four were convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to between one and five years
in prison and between 80 and 1,000 lashes, Human Rights Watch said.
Abdul
Rahman al-Lahem, the woman’s lawyer and a human rights campaigner, criticised
the court’s decision publically and has subsequently had his licence to
practise law suspended.
He is
also facing a hearing by a justice ministry disciplinary committee in December
for appearing regularly on television and talking about the case.
Impunity
Farida
Deif, researcher in the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch, said:
"A courageous young woman faces lashing and prison for speaking out about
her efforts to find justice.
"This
verdict not only sends victims of sexual violence the message that they should
not press charges, but in effect offers protection and impunity to the
perpetrators."
The New
York-based rights group has called on King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch,
to cancel the ruling against the woman, drop all charges and order the
court to end its harassment of her lawyer.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
